Sun, Aug 12th - 10:41AM

My Birthday

Sixty Years, and Gaining

What man [is he that] desireth life, [and] loveth [many] days, that he may see good?  Ps. 34:12

Who would have imagined at the outset, the course that one’s life would follow, like a river cutting and forging its way through a vast wilderness of experiences and circumstances in its allotted time on earth?  Providence is the foreseeing care and benevolent guidance of the creature’s life by the Creator, according to His pre-determined plan and purpose for it in the fullness of His economy for all things.  We know, by the testimony of the Bible that the Sovereign God has a purpose that encompasses and involves all of His creation, and that those whom He has chosen to live and reign with Him eternally are the crowning glory of this determined purpose.  How do we all fit into His great scheme and how can we each find and safely abide in that place to fulfill our individual role in it?  This must be the essential question for every person, and the pursuit of its answer his primary objective as he lives out his days on the earth.

            This great and gracious God has manifested His salvation and redeeming purposes to me, an insignificant and highly unworthy candidate for such wondrous love.  The way to eternal life has come to me through the acknowledgement of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, Who shed His precious blood on my behalf in atonement for my sins.  The joy of the realization of this fact ever increases as I continue on in my journey through this life.  To be loved and accepted is a human’s greatest need, and that need has been fully satisfied in me by His great and gracious salvation that has been bestowed upon me.  Jesus said “rejoice...and leap for joy,” and so I do in my spirit as I contemplate the magnitude of this gift of life to me.  He has called me, like a “woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth...refused...”  What an illustration to show the contrast between the utter despair of one who is hopeless, and one who has been given eternal hope beyond one’s wildest imagination !  Winning the lottery in this life pales in comparison. 

            Who would have imagined?  Who could have imagined, and how can I fully appreciate the value of my life and all it has been, is becoming and shall ever be?  Sorrows, pains, heartaches, woes, difficulties, yes, there have been and are many yet to come.  Joys, happiness, goodness, triumphs, victories, accomplishments, rewards, satisfactions, yes, also these there are for this journeyman to the Father’s house.  I cannot fully tell the reasons for the strange admixture of the good and the bad, except to say that He knows best what is needed for His dear little ones.  As Job so aptly said when calamity came like a devastating hurricane, “shall we receive good at the hand of God and not receive evil?”

I have much, even in my present temporal condition for which to be grateful.  The hope and possibility of greater and more fruitful service to my Lord, while still in this body looms just before me.  Like Ebenezer Scrooge, it is not too late to do good in this life at the realization of the wastedness of my past.  But my rejoicing is, and must be that my name is written in Heaven, never to be erased.  My place there in the presence of my lord is secure and nothing can, nor shall separate me from His great love for me.  Hallelujah!

Jesus is my saviour and my friend!  The ruler of all is on my side.  Can anything hurt me?  Surely not! 

The LORD [is] my shepherd; I shall not want.  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.  He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou [art] with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.  Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.  Psalm 23

Thank you, Lord for loving me and giving me life with Thee!  Amen.